Dave Smith Instruments announces the Mopho x4

From GearJunkies:
"Dave Smith Instruments is just a week away from introducing DSI's new Mopho x4 synthesizer keyboard to the world. This new synth is polyphonic Mopho keyboard! The Mopho x4 is the newest addition to DSI's revered line of analog subtractive synthesizers. Building upon the same award winning voice architecture of the Mopho and Mopho Keyboard, the Mopho x4 boasts huge sound and 4 voice polyphony in an ideally sized, portable, and elegantly designed package. Use it to create huge unison basses, creamy leads, maniacal sequences, and ethereal pads. The Mopho x4 is sure to satisfy all your polyphonic analog synthesis needs.

Rheyne - Live Jam #45 (5/24/12)

"Facebook: http://facebook.com/rheynemusic
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rheynemusic

Live looping improv jam with a DSI MoPho, Akai MPD26 and APC20, two iPads, an iTouch, and a DJ TechTools MIDI Fighter 3D. One iPad is running Audanika's SoundPrism Pro, triggering NI's Massive through an iConnectMIDI. Lemur is running on the other iOS devices, wirelessly controlling mixer functions and effects in Ableton Live. All audio is passed through a PreSonus 1818VSL connected to a Macbook Pro.

All loops are recorded live. Download or stream the audio at SoundCloud: http://snd.sc/JgCRhM"

Awesome live performance by Rheyne.  This is the guy to watch if you're ever feeling under-creative.  Always delivers these incredible little jams via YouTube.  Also, his sounds are GREAT.

Choosing your first Synth

Korg MicroKorg

One of the questions I see most on the net about synthesizers is everyone asking what they should buy first as a beginner. After looking around, everyone pretty much turns up on one of two-- the MicroKorg and the Alesis Micron. More recently the Akai Miniak  has also become potential first synth, too, but it's supposedly the same sound engine as the Micron. After demoing the MicroKorg  and the Micron years ago to buy my first, I settled on the Micron because it had regular size keys, and I had liked the look of it. I used it for a few shows, using only the presets, and never managed to actually learn how to program it well. It now sits in my bedroom and I've hardly touched it, especially since moving on to bigger and better synths.

DSI Tetra Sequence Demo

DSI Tetra Sequence Demo by The Synth Symp

Here's a little demo using my Tetra I got for Christmas.  The Tetra is a great little piece of synth with an unfortunate interface and app holding it back.  It's basically a 4-voice Prophet, but with even more features like sub-oscillators.  The app that Soundtower makes (I won't even link it, it's that bad) doesn't play nice with DAWs, however, so any programming you'd like to do while recording this synth requires you to use the onboard controls, which is a fair amount of menu-diving, unfortunately.  The app on its own works brilliantly for me but I've heard a ton of complaints from others, however, which is why I've joined the CTRLR crew (I've made a post about it earlier.  MIDI controllers for every synth!).  Let's hope Dave Smith and his crew cook up a Tetra keyboard sometime soon, otherwise I'll end up buying a Mopho keyboard to help this thing out (the Mopho keyboard's knobs map directly to the Tetra and they can be polychained).  Enjoy!  I think this turned out way better than I expected it would.  The Tetra packs some great sounds.

And of course, if you want to see anything on this blog, shoot me an email (thesynthesizersympathizer@gmail.com) or find me on twitter (@thesynthsymp) and follow/ @ reply me.  I'd love to hear what you guys want to see!  And if you want me to keep making content, click an ad or throw in a buck in the ole donate on the top left.


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